The move comes as the company struggles to recover from a food-safety crisis that has severely dented sales.

Chipotle filed a trademark application for the term "Better Burger," earlier this month, according to U.S. Patent and Trademark Office records.

A Chipotle spokesman said on Wednesday that the burger effort was in the works prior to last July, when a wave of disease outbreaks hit the restaurant chain.

"We have noted before that the Chipotle model could be applied to a wide variety of foods," the spokesman said.

A new restaurant concept around burgers would add to Chipotle's group of small chains, including ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen and Pizzeria Locale. Each only has a few locations so far, but they are expanding.